Review Summary: I'm looking for the right and searching for the wrong
Professional wrestlers trying their hand at music is far from a new concept. Even the superstars of the 80's were howling along to generic instrumentals with musical skill that was serviceable (or unintentional comedy) at best and Dahvie Vanity-tier crap at worst, bar standouts such as Chris Jericho's band Fozzy and All Elite Wrestling's The Butcher being the guitarist for Every Time I Die (though given Andy Williams was doing music before wrestling, that one might be cheating). But
something seems to draw a vast majority of pro wrestlers to hip-hop and rap—even "Macho Man" Randy Savage gave the whole thing a shot with the unintentional masterpiece that was 2003's
Be A Man. That brings us to recently-released WWE cruiserweight Lio Rush, who's foregoing WWE's name shortening fetish by releasing music under the unimaginative moniker of simply
Lio.
Rush had been experimenting with hip hop even before his release from the wrestling goliath due to largely unnecessary corona-related budget cuts, having already dropped the incredibly average
11:11 EP in late 2019, which was more or less a middling introduction of sorts; the kid could definitely carry a mindless tune if nothing else, but obviously you have to strive for something more if you want to perfect your craft. And that is the root problem of
Ever After; it does nothing to build on the groundwork laid by
11:11, instead opting to stay in it's own comfort zone by providing mindless, generic late-2010's style rap. Every chord progression on the album has already been done better elsewhere, much like every drumline and bassline on the album has been done much better elsewhere—the instrumentals are so unimaginative that it leads to everything blending in and nothing standing out. Lio's rapping ability, on the other hand, is completely fine—it's once again nothing groundbreaking, but his flow is definitely serviceable and knows how to capture your attention for enough time to make it through the otherwise uninspired beats. His true downfalls are both his lack of ability to distinguish himself from the pack and his crippling inability to display any emotion at all—"Lurkin", for example, tries to be a soulful ballad about finding oneself but ends up being nothing more than robotics on display with heavy amounts of production gimmicks sprinkled about, ultimately resulting in a nice fat slab of boring, while "Black Heart" sees Lio taking a stab at the emo side of hip-hop while simultaneously airing out his frustrations with his former employer and profession, but he once again fails to show any emotion that you can't help but feel complete and utter apathy towards everything he has to say. His lyrics certainly don't help things, either, as they're once again diet versions of superior artists:
"Hurting, hurting, my heart is hurting
In case you're wondering I saw you lurkin
Why won't you fade away my love is worthless
Trying to cure the pain finding my purpose"
-"Lurkin"
"You tore my heart into pieces
Your words left me blind and speechless
And now let’s put this s**t to rest
I never thought this was a test
I thought that I did my best"
-"Black Heart"
The production on
Ever After provides nothing deserving of any analysis; it's standard overproduced and compressed mainstream-style fare that has been plaguing both budget artists and non-budget artists for years now to the point where it's highly unlikely it will ever go away. The unfortunate part about
Ever After's failure is the fact that Rush doesn't seem to be using the whole music thing as a cash grab like some of his other wrestling peers (looking at you, Enzo Amore)—he seems genuinely passionate about making music, but he just can't seem to do much other than imitate what's being done by vastly superior artists in both the mainstream and the underground. It's a depressing display of robotic emotion and further dwindles any appeal to anyone outside of his largely WWE-manufactured fanbase.
Ever After boils down to a non-half-assing musician somehow managing to make a half-assed sounding album (a la Green Day's
¡Dos), and it's a sign that Lio needs to keep honing his craft before the thought of releasing more even dares cross his mind. It's a sad but true shame.
